With the rapidly approaching World Cup about to devour the hearts and minds of just about every soccer follower on the planet for the coming weeks let’s pause for a moment, move our hearts and minds away from Brazil, and try to take stock of how the Vancouver Whitecaps have progressed in 2014 thus far.

“Why don’t you break the team down into defence, midfield and attack?” I hear you say. “And don’t forget to include the new coach!” I hear you shout in a slightly menacing manner. “And if you don’t at least consider how the rest of the season will pan out I will be furious!!” I hear you scream into my ear, your face contorted by hatred.

Your own personal issues aside (maybe consider anger management counselling?) that’s not a bad plan at all and so, while you continue to shriek incoherently at strangers in the street, I will calmly barricade my door and do exactly as you demanded.

The Defence

Even before Jay DeMerit picked up an injury in Philadelphia this was an area of the team where the strength in depth was more about depth than strength. Given a clear wind the five first choice players would probably see the team through the season, but that clear wind was never going to happen; Steven Beitashour was always going to head to Brazil, and DeMerit and Andy O’Brien were both likely to be in need of rest at one time or another, leaving only David Ousted and the increasingly reassuring presence of Jordan Harvey as the only consistent factors.

Dean, Leveron and Mitchell are all good enough to provide cover in central defence, but the jury is still out on whether any of them are good enough to provide permanent service to a team with the desire to be a genuine playoff contender.

If the Whitecaps do dip their toes into the transfer market (Why would you want to dip your toes into a market? “What did you do at Granville Island today?’ “Oh, I just dipped my toes into the Public Market”) then a starting central defender and a player who can cover both full back positions look like being the first and second ports of call.

The Midfield

Modern soccer makes it hard to legitimately define who is and who is not a midfield player but the triumvirate of Laba, Koffie and Morales have been one of the highlights of the first half of the season, with the two former players providing cover to allow Morales (one of those athletes whose diffidence off the field is only matched by his arrogance on it) to display his skills to full effect.

It’s probably telling that Laba having his worst game for the Whitecaps, against Philadelphia, also coincided with the worst defensive performance of the year (that’s how important he has become for this team) and even the previously underwhelming Koffie has shown signs that he can at last develop into something more than a “promising” player.

If these three stay fit and continue to develop an understanding there’s a chance they could develop into the best midfield in MLS.

The Attack

Few could have predicted that, at the start of the season, the two in form forwards for the Whitecaps would be Darren Mattocks and Erik Hurtado, but that’s exactly where we are after an injury forced the free scoring Mattocks to make way for the subsequently even more free scoring Hurtado. The biggest problem for Carl Robinson is finding a way to harness both players in tandem, or managing his selections in such a way that both retain their form and neither becomes rusty through lack of playing time.

For all their free scoring though there’s still the sense that this Vancouver forward line isn’t quite the finished article, with Mattocks, Hurtado and Manneh all looking at their best when playing the central role and the likes of Fernandez, Mezquida and Teibert giving better width and better defensive coverage, but less threat of speed and the clinical finishing touch.

The odd man out here is Omar Salgado whose physical presence looks at odds with the style this teams has adopted, leaving the question open whether he will be seen as a player who can offer the coach a different way of playing, or a player who can be used to clinch a much needed deal.

The Coach

It’s worth remembering that at the beginning of his tenure Martin Rennie was also seen as a breath of fresh air by fans that had grown weary of the previous season’s less than inspiring shenanigans, but Robinson really does seem to bring a genuinely positive attitude to the table.

Maybe he’s just better at the media game than Rennie was (there was always the suspicion that the former coach was over thinking what his public message should be) but the likelihood is that Robinson is relishing a great opportunity.

Ultimately of course he will be judged by results, and we’ve still yet to see how he deals with a genuine dip in form from his team, but the fact that he has completely transformed the way his team approach each game, particularly road games, where the Whitecaps had a tendency to display all the reassurance of a man dipping his toes into shark infested waters (actually, dipping your toes into a market doesn’t seem quite so bad given that alternative) is huge testament to how much he has achieved in so little time.

But perhaps the biggest accolade he can be given (and, ironically, the thing that will eventually become a burden) is that he has greatly increased the standards by which this team is judged.

It’s certainly not going to be boring and the Whitecaps have already shown they are good enough to beat any team in Major League Soccer (they’ve also shown they can be vulnerable enough to fail to beat teams they should beat) but, if they avoid long term injuries to key players such as Morales, Laba and Ousted, and can have a good summer of transfer dealings (a radical idea for the Whitecaps I know) they are capable, more than capable, of finishing the season in the top two or three of the Western Conference.

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